The image of the woman has inspired many great artists of all times. She has also stimulated the imagination of modern Bulgarian artist Dimitar Grozdanov. His most recent work, the installation titled One Project, was opened on the occasion of his 50th birthday, on October 3.

An extraordinary combination of photography, painting, plastics, music and video, One Project has been arranged in the National Art Gallery in Sofia, in what used to be the royal chapel of the former king's palace in the Bulgarian capital.

Grozdanov said that he developed his installation while thinking exactly of these premises. In the dimly-lit room of the chapel the viewer is taken to a different, mysterious world. The effect is achieved by the artist uniting all the above-mentioned media around the central theme of the woman.

The focus of the installation is a mummified female figure. The white plaster cast resembling a sleeping woman's body, is lying on a glass platform. A dynamic projection on the mummy covers the white still mass with a multitude of colours. A projection of a girl's eye blinking falls on the mummy thus giving it a sense of life. A TV set next to the mummy shows a video revealing the process of making the mummy. Visitors can see how the whole artistic action happened, starting with the hairwash and hairstyling of the girl who was the model.

The preparation of the action is also presented in large photographs hung on one of the dark walls of the chapel. The mini photo exhibition gives viewers a glimpse of close-ups of the girl's eyes, hair, and eyelids.

The visual element of the exhibition is enhanced by two large canvases hung on the two opposite walls of the improvised exhibition hall. On the canvases, Grozdanov has given expression to his abstract ideas concerning the theme of the woman. The paintings present an underlined dominance of pastel nuances of blue, green, gray, showing the pastel and romantic way the artist sees the image of the woman.

What comes closest to the conventional idea of the female body are the three large glass plates facing the mummy. Collages of photographs and paintings show real-size female figures with the focus falling on different parts of the body.

The musical element of the installation features pieces prepared especially for One Project. In harmony with the whole exhibition, female voices fill the chapel singing variations of old pop and rock songs mixed with ethno rhythms.

"Grozdanov chose the chapel because of the room's ritual character," said Boris Klimentiev, deputy director of the National Art Gallery. "The chapel gives a personal, subjective meaning to the installation."

According to Klimentiev, the artist was trying to organize the whole space of the premises and to integrate all its elements into the work of art. That's why he used so many different media in the project.

Grozdanov is the editor-in-chief of Art Magazine and has published numerous critical articles on contemporary art. He has also been an organizer and participant of many performances and modern art installations since the 1980s. The artist said he viewed his artistic events as a meeting point of the verbal and visual. For him, the central issue in his latest work is human personality as a unity and as part of something bigger.

The installation One Project is on view at the National Art Gallery until October 31.